Prevalence and socio‐economic distribution of hazardous patterns of alcohol drinking: study of alcohol consumption in men aged 25–54 years in Izhevsk, Russia

Using a novel range of indicator variables of hazardous drinking, this paper shows that the prevalence of these behaviours is high among working-age men in this Russian city. Moreover, these hazardous behaviours show very clear socio-economic patterns, with particularly high prevalence among those who have had the least education and are not in employment. In contrast, more conventional measures of heavy drinking, based on frequency of consumption of beverage spirits, are less prevalent and show much weaker associations with socio-economic position.